Paul's letter to the Galatians. It was written to a number of churches in the region of Galatia, where Paul had traveled on one of his missionary journeys. You can read the stories in the book of Acts.
He wrote this important letter from a place of deep passion and frustration. Here is the backstory: Christianity began as a Jewish Messianic movement in Jerusalem, but, its’ message was for all humanity. And so, it quickly spread beyond Israel.
By Paul's time as a missionary, there were as many non-Jews as there were Jewish people in the Jesus Movement, and this sparked a huge debate that we know about from the book of Acts chapter 15. Historically, the covenant people of God were focused in one ethnic group, Israel, and they were set apart by the practices commanded in the Torah, like circumcision of males, eating kosher, observing the Sabbath. And, there were many Jewish Christians who believed that, for all of these non-Jews to truly become a part of God's family, they needed to obey the laws of the Torah.
And so, some of these Jewish Christians ended up coming to the Galatian churches. They were undermining Paul, and demanding circumcision of all these male non-Jewish Christians, and so, many of them were. And when Paul found out, he was brokenhearted and angry, and this letter is the result.
He first challenges the Galatians, with his summary of the gospel message about the crucified Messiah. He then argues, that this gospel is what creates the new multi- -ethnic Family of Jesus and Abraham, and then he shows how this gospel is what truly transforms people by the presence and power of the Spirit. He opens, by expressing his bewilderment that the Galatians have embraced a different gospel; it is the one promoted by these Christians who badmouth Paul, and demand circumcision.
So Paul first defends the authenticity of his message, and authority as an apostle. He was commissioned by the Risen Jesus Himself to go to the non-Jewish world; remember the story from the book of Acts. Paul says it was only later, that he went to Jerusalem to consult the other apostles like Peter and James, and when he told them he was not requiring non-Jewish Christians to be circumcised or eat kosher, they were in full support.
But this tension ran deeper, Peter had come to Antioch to visit and see all of these non-Jewish Christians, and he was eating and mingling with them. But, when some of these Jerusalem opposition groups showed up in Antioch, Peter caved under their pressure; he stopped eating with these uncircumcised Christians, and he was avoiding them. And so, Paul confronted and accused Peter of hypocrisy; of not staying true to the gospel.
For Paul, demanding these new Christians to become circumcised and Torah observant, it was wrongheaded for all kinds of reasons. First of all, because it is a betrayal of the gospel, or, in his words: "People are not justified by the works of the Torah, but rather by the faith of Jesus the Messiah. And we have faith in the Messiah Jesus.
To be justified, or literally, "to be declared righteous". It is a rich Old Testament term for Paul. It is when God declares that someone is in a right relationship with Him; they are forgiven, they are given a place in God's Family, and they are being transformed by God's grace.
And it is Paul's conviction, that no one can be justified by observing the commands of the Torah, but only by the faith of Jesus. This is a dense phrase, and it could refer to Jesus’ own faithfulness in living and dying on our behalf, or, it could refer to our own trust and devotion to Jesus. Either way, the point is clear: people are justified only through trusting in what God did for them through Jesus, not by what they do for themselves.
At the heart of Paul's gospel is this claim: that when people trust in the Messiah Jesus, what is true of Him becomes true of them: His life, death and resurrection become theirs; or, in his words: "I have been crucified with the Messiah, and it is not I who come back to life, it is the Messiah living in me. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me. And so, the reason anyone can say that they are right with God, or belong to Jesus’ covenant Family, it is not because they obey the laws of the Torah; it is only because of what Jesus did for them, that they could never do for themselves.
Now, this profound under- standing of what Jesus accomplished, it has huge implications for who can now be included in God's covenant Family, and for what it means to live as a member of that Family. So Paul first turns to the stories about Abraham in Genesis; how he was justified, or declared righteous before God, by simply having faith by trusting in God's promise that one day all nations would find God's blessing through Him and His offspring. God’s purpose was always to have one large multi-ethnic family of people who relate to Him on the basis of faith, not on the laws of the Torah.
But that raises an important question: "Why did God give the laws of the Torah to Israel then? " Here, Paul offers a very brief and dense explanation that he will later fill out in his letter to the Romans. He observes that the laws of the Torah, were given to Israel at Mount Sinai long after God's promise to Abraham.
And if you read the Torah carefully, he says you'll see that God always intended the laws to be a temporary measure. He says the laws had both a negative and a positive role. Negatively, the laws acted like a magnifying glass on Israel’s sin: they exposed how Israel shared in the sinful human condition, constantly rebelling against God's Law.
And so, the Law, which is good, ended up pronouncing Israel guilty, and all humanity with them. Or, in his words, "The laws imprisoned everyone under the power of sin. " But the laws also had a positive role, they acted like a strict schoolteacher that kept Israel in line, until the coming of the promised Offspring of Abraham: the Messiah.
And once the Messiah came, He fulfilled the purpose of the laws on Israel's behalf. Jesus was the Faithful Israelite Who truly loved God and neighbor, and as Israel's King, He died to take the curse and consequence of Israel's failure into Himself, and bring redemption. And so now, through Jesus, the Offspring of Abraham, God's blessing can come to all people, regardless of their ethnicity, social status or gender.
For Paul, requiring Torah observance from non-Jewish Christians, it makes no sense. It is acting as if Jesus did not fulfill God's promise, or deal with our sins. It neglects the new freedom gained for us through Jesus, and the gift of the Spirit, and it limits God's promise and blessing to one ethnic family.
But, Paul's opponents might argue, "The laws of the Torah, they are a proven guide to living according to God's will. How will non-Jewish Christians learn this? " Paul responds, in chapters five and six, by describing how Jesus’ transforming Presence through the Spirit, is the key.
"The laws of the Torah are good, they are wise, Paul says, "In fact they can all be summarized, as Jesus did, in the command to love your neighbor as yourself. " But the laws, good as they are, they did not give Israel the power to obey them. In contrast, the good news is that Jesus did fulfill the laws on our behalf, and now He lives in us through the Spirit, making His people into new humans who fulfill the law by loving others.
So, Paul goes on to contrast this old and new humanity. The habits of the old humanity are obvious; these are behaviors that dehumanize people, they destroy relationships and whole communities. And while the laws of the Torah prohibited these behaviors, Jesus actually put them to death on the Cross.
So when a person trusts in Jesus and lives in dependence on the Spirit, his life becomes theirs, and produces what Paul calls "the fruit of the Spirit". This is Jesus’ Way of life that He wants to reproduce in His Family, so that they become people of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But this fruit is not automatic, Paul says it requires cultivation, just like real fruit.
Or, in his words: "If we live by the Spirit we have to keep in step with the Spirit. " This requires intentionality. We have to learn how to prune off our old habits, and cultivate new ones.
And as we do so, we find ourselves carried along by the Spirit, as Jesus reshapes our minds and hearts, and makes us into people who love God and others. And in this way, Jesus’ people fulfill what Paul calls, "the Torah of the Messiah". In the end, Paul concludes this requirement for Christians to become Torah-observant, or be circumcised, it is an adventure in missing the point.
What really matters, is God's new Creation, this new multi-ethnic Family of the Messiah, people full of faith in Jesus, who are learning to love God and others, in the power of the Spirit. And that's what the letter to the Galatians is all about.
